


Lifeline

by jazzjo



Series: Come Live the Life [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-30 09:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5159426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jazzjo/pseuds/jazzjo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sutures could hold them together. </p><p>Or, Maria really shouldn't be getting hurt like this anymore, but she does. Of course, the first person she'd trust to patch her up would be Alex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lifeline

Maria lay on her side, unfamiliar sheets beneath her cheek. Her hand grasped at the sheets, gripping so hard onto them that her knuckles turned white. 

 

It had evidently been long enough for her system to have forgotten about how much it hurt to be stitched up, _sans_ anaesthesia. 

 

From what she could discern in the licking of incendiary flames of pain against her flank, these were some of the neatest, most precise stitches that she had ever received. That, at least, was a comfort. 

 

Apart from the person behind the stitching, of course. That was the biggest comfort in itself. 

 

“I’m not a medical doctor, Maria,” Alex protested as Maria requested for her to suture a wound up, “You can’t keep asking me to stitch you up.”

 

_Just a graze_ , she had claimed.

 

“At least it’s me asking for your help,” Maria chuckled, “I can’t imagine if you’d been injured and had to ask me to patch you up. You’d probably murder me and end up doing it yourself.”

 

Alex sighed as she peered at the wound staining Maria’s discarded shirt a glaring scarlet, “I get that the ER is not an option, but how does Stark Industries not have a medic on hand? I’m not a medical doctor, ‘Ria. I can’t fix everything.”

 

“It doesn’t matter, ‘Lex,” Maria retorted, “There are few people I trust more than you to do this. It’s not as if you’ve never done this before.”

 

Alex had tried her best to roll her eyes and pass the brief shiver that tore through her off as nonchalance.

 

Picking up a surgical suture ( _why did she keep those around the house anyway?_ ), Alex’s hand trembled for a brief moment before she steadied it. Her hands worked as quickly and accurately as she possibly could to prevent any unnecessary pain. 

 

At least she could stitch through Maria’s skin, unlike Kara’s. There was no need for kryptonite coated needles in this case. 

 

“I was under the impression that you were no longer in direct line of fire,” Alex probed with an air of faux callousness, “Stark Industries seems to fight its issues more with cold, hard cash than warm flesh and blood.”

 

Maria tried to shrug her shoulders casually, only to hiss as her new stitches pulled while Alex smacked her lightly on the shoulder. 

 

“Don’t you dare rip those stitches like you did the last time,” Alex warned, “God, it’s harder to patch you up than Kara.”

 

Smirking at the comment, Maria started, “It’s just a g—”

 

“The bullet quite literally tore a hole in your side,” Alex cut her off sharply before she could wave it off, “It was a through and through, but definitely not a graze.”

 

Alex snapped the latex gloves off her hands, tossing them into the trash with the rest of her disposable supplies. Sliding her hand gently between Maria’s side and the surface of the mattress, Alex gradually guided Maria back into an upright sitting position. 

 

“You were lucky this time, ‘Ria,” Alex continued, forcing her voice to keep steady, “The bullet didn’t hit anything major, and it didn’t fragment either. It could have been so much worse.”

 

Before Alex could remove her hand, Maria’s hand covered her own in a shroud of warmth. 

 

For a brief flash of a moment there, Maria could swear she had felt Alex flinch. 

 

“But it wasn’t, Alex,” Maria assured, “I’ll be just fine.”

 

The shorter woman tilted her face away from Maria, her hand tensed against the fabric of Maria’s clothing. 

 

“Don’t ever do that again,” Alex murmured, her voice breaking as tears gathered in her eyes, “Don’t ever show up bleeding all over my apartment with a face as white as death making me believe like I could lose you because you went out and tried to save the world from itself again. Please, Maria, don’t–”

 

Maria did not interrupt or protest, even as Alex’s voice trailed off as she choked back sobs. Maria held onto her hand like a lifeline, rubbing the pad of her thumb in circles over Alex’s knuckles.

 

Warm wetness blossomed on Maria’s left shoulder. The silent but shuddering sobs that wracked Alex’s frame similarly jolted Maria’s own as Alex leaned her forehead against Maria’s shoulder. 

 

“I know I can’t tell you to not be a hero,” Alex mumbled between gasping breaths, “I would never do that. It’s too much of who we both are.”  
  
“You just wish I wouldn’t choose such dangerous ways in which to partake in heroics,” Maria concluded in her stead. 

 

They were both far too invested in the safety of others. Self-preservation was something they had to remind each other about. 

 

Alex had always had Kara to come home to, to remind her that there would be someone who would receive a flag folded thirteen times to the sound of a three volley salute. 

 

But Maria, Maria had never had anyone who would weep at her headstone and whisper words to the howling wind and hope for an answer, not like Alex would now. 

 

“I’m not good at this,” Maria admitted resignedly, “Watching my own back and remembering that there’s some–—thing waiting for me after the danger has passed.”

 

Bringing her hand up to rest on Alex’s short hair, Maria brushed auburn strands behind Alex’s ear before allowing her thumb to run over Alex’s cheekbone. Alex shook with another suppressed sob before she turned her head away from Maria and rubbed fervently at any and all traces of her tears. 

 

“Try to be careful,” Alex finally managed to get the words out of her mouth, a new mask of calm over her, “That’s all I ask.”

 

“Always do.”

 

What was left unsaid, as Maria’s pale blue gaze bored holes into her lap rather than focused on Alex’s brown, was the fear that Maria herself felt. 

 

Not for herself, but for the reality of the danger that Alex faced daily. 

 

_You step into far more dangerous situations on a daily basis_ , Maria wanted to yell, _for goodness sake, you’ve been stabbed and abducted by a chlorine-based giant insect, under orders of a virtually indestructible alien._

 

Shifting as quickly as she could without pulling her stitches, Maria knelt on the ground in front of Alex. 

 

Taking one of Alex’s hands in her own, Maria touched the other to the underside of Alex’s chin. Tilting Alex’s head slightly such that she held her gaze, Maria’s lips parted as she struggled to find words. 

 

_I love you_. 

 

“I am sorry,” Maria started hesitantly, “So, so sorry. But you’re right, this is who I am. Who we both are. Maybe thats why we clicked so quickly – we are so alike in this way, in how we find our own worth in saving other people.”

 

_I’m afraid of so little, except losing you._

 

Shaking her head once, Maria held on tighter to Alex’s hand before continuing, “Alex, I will never stop trying to find my way back to you, no matter what.”

 

_Alexandra Danvers, you mean the world to me._

 

Alex averted her gaze momentarily, her brown eyes wandering as they filled with tears. 

 

When they met Maria’s eyes once more, Maria started once more, the words catching on her tongue before tumbling out, “You mean the world to me, Alexandra Danvers. I am afraid of so very, very little, except losing you.”

 

Bringing Alex’s hand to her lips, Maria placed a feather-light kiss on her knuckles. 

 

This time, it was Maria who broke their eye contact to stare into the faint paisley print of the sheets. 

 

“The only thing that kept my eyes open, that kept my feet placing one step in front of the other, was the knowledge that I could not allow myself to leave things unsaid,” Maria whispered, “That couldn’t have been the end. The most painful word in the world over is ‘almost’, and I could never let us be just an ‘if only’.”

 

Alex lifted her other hand from its place bracing her against the bed, cradling Maria’s jaw gently. 

 

As she leaned forward, she became all too aware of the sharp intakes of breath the both of them made, of the quiver in her own lips, of the fleeting glances between each other’s eyes and their lips. 

 

Abruptly, their lips met. 

 

It was gentle, and yet there was the unmistakable harsh tang of coppery iron that lingered on their tongues. 

 

Both their lips were soft, but the dry raggedness that stemmed from being exposed to the elements was something they both noticed. 

 

Nevertheless, there was an all-encompassing sudden sense of _quiet_ the very moment their lips met. 

 

It was almost as if every worry about how they possibly could work, every niggling taunt that neither of them would ever be willing to take a moment to consider the consequences of the actions they made, all the burning, chaotic white noise in their heads, it all faded into the background. 

 

Stillness. Peace. 

 

As they released each other from the contact, they leaned their foreheads against the other’s, allowing their heartbeat to thrum exuberantly in their heads. 

 

“I love you,” She finally blurted out, the words falling over themselves, “I couldn’t let us go another moment without you knowing since every moment for us is a blessing, and never a guarantee.”

 

Maria leaned forward this time, allowing her lips to capture Alex’s own in another kiss. 

 

As she smiled into this one, shifting herself such that she was seated next to Alex on the bed. Taking the hand that was still in her own, Maria lay Alex’s palm flat against the left of her sternum.

 

Maria uttered plainly, “Every beat of my heart is a promise in itself. That I will never stop fighting, no matter what, to come back to you.”

 

Alex clenched her fist, feeling the thrum of Maria’s heartbeat reverberate through her chest, against her knuckles.

 

“You’re not indestructible, Maria,” Alex chuckled dryly, “No matter how much you and Kara both believe that the both of you are indestructible, you aren’t.”

 

Removing her hand from its place on Maria’s warm skin, Alex swept her hair back and willed the tears in her eyes not to fall. 

 

_It would destroy me, if I lost you to the world and all its dangers._

 

Maria ran her thumb over Alex’s cheekbone once more, catching the errant tear that had escaped her restraint. 

 

Moving such that she was leaning against the headboard of the bed, Maria winced as she felt the stitches pull slightly against raw skin. She beckoned for Alex to join her, wrapping an arm around the shorter girl as Alex leaned her head in the crook of Maria’s neck.

 

_So this is what it means_ , Maria pondered as she pressed a kiss to Alex’s hair, _to have someone mean so much to you that they held your entire soul_.

 

_I need you, to live, to breathe, to be._

 


End file.
